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9.02.2016

Kindergarten is Hard!

I remember the kitchen set and loving the baby dolls, we had the "diversity set" with dolls of 3 ethnicities and both genders.

I remember really fat crayons and giant headphones in computer class. I remember the monkey bars and the swings.

My daughter's experience is entirely different. She has cried so many times in the last 19 days since school started. And for her it's only 15.

We've been working on sight words, coloring homework, walking in a quite line, did I mention homework?, learning to tie shoes and .... going without a nap!

Maybe I am being a bit mellow dramatic. But, maybe not.

It seems like all of our high stakes testing and pushing is breaking our children. Kids are freaking out and losing control and getting upset over so many things that in the long run don't really work.

Why does this article on WebMD about dealing with stress in small children, even need to be published?

What happened to Montessori education?

Long gone are the days of students self selecting their play and self selecting their activities and having time to explore the world around them.

Parents are regularly told to spend crazy amounts of time making flash cards and small little reading books to "reinforce the work done at school". I don't know about you, but I need a break after a busy day and I'm guessing our kids do too....

Yet, there I was cutting up those flash cards with the best of them. Peer pressure.